1. Statement of the Technical Field
The present invention relates to the cooperative deployment of resource management objects in an integrated solutions console and more particularly to the integration and arrangement of different resource management objects in a hierarchy for deployment in an integrated solutions console.
2. Description of the Related Art
The rapid evolution of technology and the Internet have created an unforgiving consumer. End-users expect e-business to be fast and focused, providing a quick response to service requests. End users further expect dynamic adaptation to meet new computing demands and the provisioning of uninterrupted, round-the-clock access to products and services. Meeting the demands of this unforgiving consumer can require new levels of integration and performance management.
To remain competitive, the enterprise must deploy the appropriate technology to effectively integrate business processes across the enterprise and with key partners, suppliers and customers. The correct infrastructure can enable e-business agility allowing the business to immediately respond to customer demands, market opportunities and security threats. Yet, building and managing an on-demand operating environment can be difficult even for the most skilled technology team. Years of expanding the system architecture to capitalize on new and more advanced technology has created a complex infrastructure. Despite the complexity, though, the demands remain the same: complete and seamless integration of all disparate and similar technologies.
To facilitate the integration and management of multiple, disparate technologies, integrated resource management systems have been deployed to provide a singular view to the enterprise, despite the disparate nature of the resources disposed therein. Through an integrated solutions console, a view of the enterprise can be provided, not only in reference to the performance of individually monitored resources, but also in respect to the administration of security, the authorization of users, the management of service level agreements and the like. Cutting edge implementations of the integrated solutions console demonstrate unparalleled flexibility by providing a portal view to independently developed resource management components.
Generally, console modules disposed within the integrated solutions console can be charged with the management or monitoring of one or more corresponding resources. Referred to in the art as a “resource management object”, each resource management object can be rendered within the integrated solutions console to represent one or more independently developed and self-contained objects directed to a specific target platform or resource. To integrate a particular resource management object within the integrated solutions console, then, requires an awareness on the part of the object developer not only of the structure of the integrated solutions console, but also of the interface to the integrated solutions console through which the resource management object can be added thereto. Importantly, to the extent that a resource management object is to be disposed within a hierarchy of management objects in the integrated solutions console, an awareness must be maintained not only of the architecture and interface of the integrated solutions console, but also of fellow resource management objects disposed within the integrated solutions console.
In the past, the range of target resources managed by any one resource management object remained limited. As such, individual resource management objects often were developed through respective resource management object processes by independent entities without knowledge of one another. Consequently, the manual exercise required to integrate all of the resource management objects in an integrated solutions console remained tolerable.
In particular, in the typical circumstance, the deployment characteristics of each resource management object can be specified within a deployment descriptor based upon the preferences of the developer and the knowledge by the developer of other resource management objects to be deployed in the integrated solutions console. In this regard, each developer of a resource management object must obtain firsthand knowledge of the data disposed within the deployment descriptors of other resource management objects to ensure that all of the resource management objects properly integrate with one another.
Recently, the explosion of the number and complexity of target resources and the source management objects developed to manage these resources has doomed the manual nature of the status quo. As a result, a new level of integration and automation in the development and arrangement of resource management objects for disposal in an integrated solutions console will be required. Moreover, this new level of integration and automation cannot rely upon the ability of different developers to communicate with one another, either directly, or programmatically.